Maria Sharapova hasbeen provisionally banned from tennis, after revealing sheh ad tested positive for meldonium, which the world No7 says she was taking to tackle a magnesium deficiency and heart problems. The drug is banned by Wada because it increases blood flow, which improves exercise capacity in athletes.

 

The Latvian company that manufactures meldonium said the normal course of treatment for the drug was four to six weeks, not the 10 years during which Sharapova says she used the substance.

 

Simon Cambers asked her lawyer, John Haggerty, for an explanation.

 

"She takes full responsibility for it. It’s her and her responsibility alone. It’s not the responsibility of any member of her team. At the press conference she took full responsibility for that. We are still looking into and confirming how exactly Maria was notified. But I do not believe the five notifications is correct. But we’re not here to dispute that. We’re here to say that Maria had a responsibility to check the list. She failed to do it and that’s that. She’s not going to make excuses for that. She did receive at least one notification, we’re still working on determining exactly how many more than that she received. But the reality, she was notified the banned list was available and she failed to go and check the banned list and search for the medicines she was on to see if any of them had made their way on to the banned list for 2016."

 

"Her doctor recommended it for a number of her conditions, he recommended some additional medications, and she followed her doctor’s orders in taking all those medications."